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[0:00] If we will reach out, he's there. He's standing at the door and knocking, waiting on us to reach out and touch, waiting on us to reach out and touch.

[0:16] ! Waiting on us to open up to him. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the door and open up to him.

[0:28] We looked at Colossians and the verses especially, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in our Lord Jesus.

[0:44] This morning, I want to continue. I want to look at... I'm not quite sure where all we're going this morning, but I want to look at the Holy Ghost and him working in us.

[1:07] In Philippians 2, verse 5, it says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And he continues on.

[1:20] But the thought I want to get from this verse is just simply that he wants us...

[1:33] God wants us to have the mind of Christ. And how do we have the mind of Christ? It is by the Spirit of God dwelling in us.

[1:47] In the gospel of John, chapter 7. When I look at this, we'll start here this morning.

[2:07] In John, chapter 7 and verse 37... ...through 39. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

[2:28] He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

[2:43] For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, he clarifies.

[2:56] The writer here clarifies what Jesus said. You know, the people, and we'll look at this, the people had many questions.

[3:07] And what's he talking about? And who is this guy? And on and on like that. But John, as he wrote this, quoting what Jesus said, If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

[3:25] He that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And he's referring back, of course, to prophecies.

[3:36] And there's prophecies. And several different prophets wrote about God giving us a new heart, giving his people a new heart, and dwelling in them, and so on.

[3:57] And so John, as he quotes this, and then he clarifies that, yes, this is the Holy Ghost that he's talking about. Now, let's look at some of the reaction of the people here.

[4:11] Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ.

[4:22] But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was.

[4:37] So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. You know, so as we look at this, I just want to point out that as these people, they discussed this man, and they reasoned together, who is this guy?

[5:04] Who is he? And some had this, you know, well, he comes from Galilee. There's no prophet comes from Galilee. And the Christ will come from Bethlehem.

[5:15] And, you know, they were, they obviously didn't know all the history of Christ. But they knew where he came from, where he had lived.

[5:25] And so as they reasoned together, what happened? It brought division and doubt.

[5:38] It brought division and doubt. And this one thought that I want to pick up several times as we go through this message this morning, because I believe that the church of our day is plagued with the same problem.

[5:58] Is people trying to explain things by the carnal mind in our own thinking. And as they do that, they explain away the very provision of God.

[6:16] For now, let's go back and look at verse 37 and 38. If any man thirsts, are we thirsty?

[6:30] Are we thirsty or are we satisfied with where we're at? Are we longing for more? You know, Jesus said, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled.

[6:47] If we have that longing desire, if we feel that need in our soul, if we hunger for more of Jesus, he will respond and he will fill.

[7:03] Thirst, an ardent, eager famishing. It's a keen and all-consuming craving and passion of the soul for complete union with God and fullness of the spirit.

[7:21] You know, I believe that the promise of God is that if we have this thirst, if we have this kind of thirst, he will fill us, he will give us to drink.

[7:35] Come unto me. You know, I, yes, I have these verses all broken up into little phrases. If we thirst, let's come to Jesus.

[7:47] Come to him how? Come to him in a full surrender. Come to him, acknowledging our need, acknowledging that we are a needy person and that without him we are nothing.

[8:06] Come unto him in full surrender of our life to do the will of God. Well, he says, if we thirst to come unto him and drink.

[8:19] How do we drink? I believe that the way that we drink is wholeheartedly accepting what he's saying, wholeheartedly accepting what God has for us, accepting this word with all our heart, accepting the spirit of God with all our heart.

[8:44] He that believeth on me. Do we believe on Jesus with all our heart?

[8:56] He that believeth on me as the scripture has said. If we believe on him. You know, Jesus said, and we might see this later further on in the book of John, that if we, as many, if we love him, we will obey him.

[9:16] If we believe him and we love him, we will obey him and he will come and make his abode with us. That's what we're talking about here this morning.

[9:29] Rivers. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. You know, this river out here.

[9:44] You know, they can put up a dam to stop the water, but it will fill up and it will overflow. You can't stop a river. And the river of God is the same way.

[9:55] It's an abundant power source. Rivers. It's unlimited power to do the works of Christ.

[10:11] And how's that? Because when we believe, as the scripture has said, we enter into a spiritual union with our Lord Jesus through the power and presence of the spirit of God.

[10:37] And the spirit of God is unlimited. There is no limit to what he can do. There is no limit to what he can do through us if we will walk in faith.

[10:52] Power. You know, we think of Holy Ghost power.

[11:10] We think of the power of a river. But the power we're talking about is the power of God. It is an inherent power capable of reproducing itself.

[11:25] You know, the life of God in us will reproduce itself. There will be fruit coming out of your life. There will be power to witness.

[11:38] And hopefully you have this power. Hopefully you are walking in this power. But let me encourage you that we give ourselves to him and that we walk in his power.

[11:54] We are complete in him.

[12:09] In Acts, Jesus promised. In Acts 1, he says, Wait for the promise of the Father.

[12:22] For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. You know, and here, let me just bring in, let's read verse 6 and take note here.

[12:43] When they therefore were come together, the disciples, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.

[12:58] Notice, as Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God, as Jesus was talking about the coming of the Spirit of God and the coming of his kingdom in power, their first question was whether he will restore the kingdom to Israel now when this happens.

[13:27] You know, another example of human reasoning in this carnal mind trying to describe the things of God in a way that is acceptable to the human mind.

[13:48] You know, after the coming of the Spirit of God, after the day of Pentecost, you never once, you never once read that the apostles thought that the kingdom of God was a physical, political kingdom on the earth.

[14:14] But Jesus answered them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

[14:41] So Jesus did not, in reality, give them the answer to their question, but he told them what will happen.

[14:54] He told them that the power of God will come upon them, power to be a witness, power to witness, power to carry this gospel across the world.

[15:09] And they did. Yes. Yes. Yes. Now I want to go back to John.

[15:33] No, wait a minute. Let's go to Romans while we're here. I think next we'll go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12.

[15:45] And he gives us here, let's read at least the first three verses.

[15:55] I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

[16:09] And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

[16:23] For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

[16:39] For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another.

[16:56] You know, let's notice, you know, we're very familiar with these first verses. I beseech you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, to give ourselves, to surrender our heart and life and to give ourselves a living sacrifice.

[17:17] And then he says, to not be conformed to the world. And he gives us the answer in how we accomplish this. He says, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

[17:31] You know, that old mind, it is like it says, and I believe in chapter eight, that the carnal mind is the enemy of God. And therefore, it must be laid aside and we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

[17:51] That is receiving the mind of Christ. That is receiving and allowing him to take over and to direct our thoughts, to bring every thought into captivity and to lay aside our own thinking.

[18:13] You know, he goes on here. We read part of it. Maybe we'll, I'd like to read some of 1 Corinthians 12 sometime if we get there. But about the body of Christ and every individual has his place to fill.

[18:36] And our carnal mind tries to say that some of those things are not important, but I believe they are. Why?

[18:46] Why? Because they're gifts of God, gifts of the Holy Ghost, and he has given them for the furtherance of his kingdom. Transform.

[19:06] You know, we cannot have the new mind unless we lay down the old. replace what argues against God.

[19:18] That's that old flesh life, that old carnal mind that's always trying to reason things out and trying to explain.

[19:29] You know, I... I had to think of the Sadducees in Jesus' day. You know, it says that they did not believe in angels or spirits.

[19:43] They didn't believe in the supernatural. The carnal mind does not believe in the supernatural.

[19:55] And that is why people try to explain it away. That's why people try to explain away the need for miracles in the church.

[20:07] People try to explain away the gifts of the Spirit, and, oh, we don't need them in our modern day. It's the Sadducee. Yes.

[20:23] Let's go back to the book of John. John. John 14.

[21:00] Jesus starts in... Well, of course, there weren't chapters in that day. But he had just told Peter that he will deny him, and then it continues on here, let not your heart be troubled.

[21:19] You believe in God, believe also in me. And he was trying to teach them about that he would leave and send the Spirit.

[21:32] But now let's read verse 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

[21:46] And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Well, Philip said, Show us the Father. And Jesus just continued on.

[21:56] But let's read verse 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

[22:15] Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also.

[22:30] And greater works in thee shall he do, because I go unto my Father. You know, and they could not understand this, but today as we read this, we know that the reason that we can do the works of Christ is because, you know, he said, because I go to the Father.

[22:55] Well, they thought, well, if you leave, then we're left. No, he had to leave that the Holy Ghost could come, and the Holy Ghost can dwell within us, and we can have that spirit union with our Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Ghost.

[23:17] and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.

[23:29] If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.

[23:42] Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

[23:56] I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. You know, we can understand these verses because we have experienced some of this, but just imagine the disciples, they were hearing this, but how it, it didn't make sense, did it?

[24:19] And it does not make sense to the carnal mind today. It does not. But as we have a renewed mind, we know, and we have experienced these things.

[24:33] He continues on, at that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

[24:51] You know, this is such a profound verse. Verse 20. Ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, I in you.

[25:07] We are in Christ. Christ is in us. Christ is in the Father. He dwells in us by the Holy Ghost. The three in one.

[25:20] God. But this is, you know, I think we, we're so used to, to hearing these things, and we just take them for granted.

[25:37] But, can we comprehend that we have God himself dwelling in us, in this temple of flesh?

[25:53] We have God himself living in us. And then let's think of the struggles we went through this past week, and the discouragement we faced, and the trials that we were tempted in, and maybe we gave in to some of them, and all of those things.

[26:22] But at the same time, we have the awesome presence of God in our heart. I believe if we can grasp a hold and live in this, in with, if we can live with this in our mind, and in the forefront of our thoughts, it will help us to live a victorious and a powerful life.

[27:01] If a man love me, he will keep my words. Verse 23. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

[27:15] He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. The people that do not keep the sayings of Christ, it shows that they do not love him, and he will not dwell in them.

[27:36] these things have I spoken unto you because a being yet present with you, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

[28:01] Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

[28:15] The Holy Ghost will teach us all things. Are we allowing him to teach us? Or do we have our mind made up? Are we like the people that there that in Jesus' day that they they try to figure out who this man is and you know he can't be a prophet he's from Galilee?

[28:46] How is it are we allowing him his place? Again in chapter 16 starting in verse 7 nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you and when he is come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not on me of righteousness because I go to my father ye see me no more of judgment because the prince of this world is judged I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now how be it when he the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth you know there it is again you know and are we walking in submission to the spirit of God are we allowing him to teach us are we allowing him to direct our path are we allowing him his rightful place in our heart in our life in our thought life to do that we must trust him we must learn to know him and learn to believe that he will do what he has said he will do we must learn to walk with him in humility and submission he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you all things that the father hath are mine therefore said

[31:10] I that he shall take of mine and show it unto you he shall glorify me you know today there are many spirits out in this world and and there's many antichrist spirits but the spirit of God will always exalt Jesus he will never exalt itself and he will never exalt a man but he will exalt the Lord Jesus he will glorify me and then what does he say he will receive of mine and shall show it unto you the spirit of God is here to direct your path he's here to empower you for service he is here to empower you to be a witness and it says he will receive of mine you know

[32:13] I I let's just turn to Ephesians and let's see what he says there in Ephesians chapter three here we have the apostle talking about being filled with all the fullness of God being filled with all the fullness of God and let's just start in verse 16 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man now let's remember you know before in John it said that the spirit of God will receive of Christ and bring it to us now he says that he would grant according to the riches of his glory you know can we fathom the riches in glory not really not really it's so so far beyond our comprehension but those riches are to meet our need by the spirit of

[33:39] God the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man you know if we if we will walk with him he will strengthen us how will he strengthen us he will strengthen us by his spirit you know as long as we depend upon our own strength as long as we depend upon our own wisdom we block his but when we when we walk in humility with our Lord Jesus he will strengthen us with his might by his spirit and he will meet our need that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of

[34:52] Christ which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God you know we read these verses can we even glimpse a little bit of what he's saying can we glimpse just a little bit of the possibilities of what God can do with us as we walk in this as we walk a surrendered life empowered by the spirit of God walking in the fullness of God now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly not just a little bit not just barely enough not just enough to scrape by no but he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think why do we lack why do we lack our God is able he is able above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the church by Christ

[36:46] Jesus throughout all ages world without end amen yeah I believe it is because of our unbelief that we do not see his power more in our lives I'm not just talking to you I'm talking to me I believe that includes all humanity there's unlimited power in the spirit of God unlimited power and he desires to dwell within us and he desires to empower us he desires to live the life of Christ through us like the apostle wrote he said I'm crucified and I'm dead but yet I live I live the life of the Lord Jesus you know we look at those men and what they accomplished and what

[37:58] God was able to do through them God desires to use you and I today to do his work in this world unlimited power unlimited power the power of God is absolutely unlimited and he says that we might know him that we might know his love that we might know the spirit of God that we might be filled with the fullness of God this is the desire of our Lord Jesus that we would be filled with his fullness and he is able to do much more than we can ask or think you know we think many things and we can but he's greater than that he's greater than what we can imagine hallelujah our

[39:05] Lord Jesus his power is unlimited are we living in that new mind is our mind has our mind been transformed and have we been filled with the power of God have we received that baptism of the Holy Ghost that he's talking about you know in 1 Corinthians 12 we'll just pick out a few verses here and there but he there in verse 4 there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit verse 7 the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man the prophet with all and and he goes through all these this list of gifts and then verse 11 but all these worketh that one and self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will these gifts of the

[40:44] Holy Ghost you know we have to have the spirit of God in our life and in control of our life and then he can bring these gifts and he will bring he will bring these gifts as he will you know many people today they they desire a certain gift you know I was with a group of people and they they said well but in our in our in our country people everybody wants to be a prophet I said no that's not how it works you know he decides what gift that you will have he decides what your place is in the body he decides and he gives you the gifts that he desires that he can use you to fulfill the spot and the purpose that he has for you in the body verse 12 as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is

[42:07] Christ for by one spirit are well baptized into one body it doesn't matter where you come from doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile it doesn't matter if you're from Africa or Asia or the United States we're all we're all brought into this one body by being born again by the spirit of God and now being filled by the Holy Ghost and have been all made to drink into one spirit have we drank in this one spirit and been filled by the spirit of God he goes on talking about the different parts of the body and so on see where's the verse that I wanted verse 18 but now has God set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him

[43:09] God has set us in the body as it has pleased him and he gives us gifts of the Holy Ghost that we can fill that spot in the body where he has placed us and we cannot say that some of these gifts are not important or others are you know whatever you know he desires to give us these gifts and let us not refuse them but let us surrender to him and allow him to give us the gift that he desires that he can use us as he desires as Do we have the mind of Christ?

[44:43] And are we surrendered to him? Jesus said in John 6, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

[44:57] Amen. Are we, is that our heart? Is that our life? Is that, are we so yielded to him?

[45:12] Are we so yielded to him that we allow him to have his way? In Hebrews, it says of Christ, and this is a quote out of the Old Testament, a prophecy of Christ, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.

[45:44] Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. You know, are we yielded to him? Are we yielded to his will? You know, he doesn't give us the power, the spirit of God that we can be self-exalted, that we can be a great man, that we can make a name for ourselves, that we can, you know, that everybody will look up to us?

[46:15] No. He says he resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And as we humble ourselves to walk with our Savior, he can fill us and he can use us and he can have his way in our lives.

[46:37] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the comforter that you have sent to abide with us forever.

[46:51] And Lord, I pray that you would be with us and help us to walk in humility with your spirit, to walk, Lord, in a way that you can use us, that you can empower us.

[47:11] Lord, not trusting in our own strength, but trusting in you. Lord, help us to know what it means to be transformed and to have that new mind and to allow you to direct our path.

[47:32] Lord, be with us today. Lord, strengthen us and meet our every need. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[47:43]  Amen.